Jill Geer

EUGENE, Ore. — There’s a simple and elegant solution for USA Track & Field as it wrestles with the dilemma posed by the dead heat in the women’s 100 meter Saturday between Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh.

It’s right there in the other marquee Summer Games sport, swimming, and it happens all the time.

Wait. What’s this? USA Track & Field, arguably the most dysfunctional of all major American Olympic sports federations, maybe getting something not just right but possibly taking an ambitious step to profoundly reshape the future direction of the sport in the United States and even worldwide?

Alan Abrahamson is an award-winning sportswriter, best-selling author and in-demand television analyst. In 2010, he launched his own website, 3 Wire Sports, described in James Patterson and Mark Sullivan's 2012 best-selling novel Private Games as "the world's best source of information about the [Olympic] Games and the culture that surrounds them."